Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Thursday Homes & Gardens in The Oregonian has an article by Bridget A Otto about George DeVita and his wife Sarah who wanted a house styled after the Munsters' famous house. With the help of architect Brunier & Associates and Gene Newell of Gem Finish Carpentry the two are realizing their dream.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

There's a new website for individuals interested in a career as an interior designer. It's Find Your Art School.com

Interest in interior design schools is always consistently high, perhaps because interior design is such a vibrant, creative profession. Interior designers are in demand for their skills at creating inviting, livable interior spaces, utilizing their knowledge of texture, color, composition, design, lighting, health and safety. These are all topics taught at interior design schools and are not generally easy to learn on one’s own.

This is a great time to become an interior designer. Times have been tough and many designers have quit or retired. However, tough times don't last. Furniture wears out, trends change and we all have less time to make design decisions. We want an expert to do the hard work that will save us money, interpret our needs and give us a comfortable and safe nest for our home.

Some times we're just humbled by the industriousness of writers. Lawn Care Services has recently posted an helpful article listing 40 Essential Books on Home Lighting. Did you know there were so many books on the subject? There are such titles as:

The art of outdoor lighting: landscapes with the beauty of lighting by Randall Whitehead

This book also serves as directory for lighting and landscape designers as well as a basic guide for several exterior lighting design concepts.

Interior lighting for designers by Gary Gordon

Learn to amplify the artistic impact of your house through this book. The reader will be introduced to lighting jargon, perception and general design strategies.

Lighting Style by Kevin McCloud

In this book, lighting and furniture businessman Kevin McCloud has provided readers with an outstanding and complete guide to implementing various home lighting solutions.

We read My Design Secrets. Today the subject was Decorating with Worn and Washed Woods. We see designers shifting their emphasis from dark colors in case goods to the worn finishes that have a nice earthy matte look. Partly the new trend is the desire to re-use and recycle.

Lorrie Browne who writes the blog said,

I like washed finishes for a number of reason, not the least of which is their time-worn look. Furniture just has more character when it looks likes like it’s been around the block. But the beauty of these weathered pieces is their ability to fit perfectly into so many designs such as:

As a counterpoint to a room full of medium or dark toned antiques, it’s a great solution.

If you are going for a light, beachy look with lots of white and painted finishes but crave some natural warmth, it also works.

And if you love modern pieces but still want to inject a little history, they fit the bill there too.

Our choice are pieces from Dovetail Furniture. Come in and see the fabulous well-worn pieces, such as the Fowler Bookcase. As Browne says, "They are interesting, beautiful and instantly bring a little history into your space!"

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Chickens seem to be the new rage. New York transplants, architects Mitchell Snyder and Shelley Martin, finally had a yard in Portland and wanted chickens with their garden Dwell shows us how they solved the housing problem for the their three hens.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Global Views and Eastern Breeze Home Collections have partnered to develop and expand the Studio A line of design-driven home decor accessories and accent furniture.

Eastern Breeze has been selling its line under the Studio A name for the past year. With the new partnership, Studio A will become a stand-alone company that will utilize the infrastructure and market expertise of Global Views, and the design direction of Eastern Breeze founders Will Foster and Mary Wilson.

Global Views CEO, David Gebhart and his partners, Frederick Rayner and Lois Del Negro, are excited about this opportunity to expand the Studio A product offering.

“Studio A offers merchants and interior designers another tasteful viewpoint in home furnishings which could be further developed and enlarged," said Gebhart. "We welcome the chance to be a part of another exciting interior design assortment to greater fulfill the needs of our customers. Studio A gives us this ability. We feel with our experience, knowledge, and funding Studio A can become a major force in the industry—the innovative product design is already there—it just needs to be encouraged and supported."

Global Views is a diversified company offering fine designs in gifts, decorative accessories, accent tables, large furniture items, rugs, mirrors, and lighting. The Dallas-based company has showrooms in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, High Point, Las Vegas and New York.

Studio A showrooms and sales force will expand across the country as the company develops.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Precedent, a division of Sherrill Furniture, is excited to announce today that they are partnering with DwellStudio, the New York City-based lifestyle brand, to debut their first furniture collection in April 2011 at the High Point Furniture Market. Bringing their signature eclectic modern look to furniture, DwellStudio has designed a complete collection of upholstered and occasional pieces that will be manufactured by Precedent and other Sherrill Furniture divisions.

Precedent CEO, Woody Williams says; "We are thrilled to partner with DwellStudio because their impressive track record for innovative design in home furnishings. We know that their uniquely modern sense of design in textiles resonates with today's style-aware 25 – 45 year old consumer, who many of our furniture retailer partners have found elusive. We are excited to translate that same design sense into furniture."

Aesthetically, the line has an elegant European mid-century feel to it, but updated with DwellStudio's signature stamp of mixing old and new styles, adding bold color and pattern. For the upholstery collection, fabric sourcing will be a blend of Precedent's current vendors and DwellStudio's collection of residential fabrics with Robert Allen. Sofas from the collection will retail from $1400 - $1800 with occasional tables starting at $600.

Christiane Lemieux, DwellStudio's founder and creative director, explains; "We are thrilled to work with Precedent, a company that is known for transitional/modern design. They provide the experience that is essential to executing our styles with a quality level and price point that will our customers have come to expect." Lemieux goes on; "We see that there is a growing population of design-minded, new economy consumers who want something unique, eclectic, and well designed at a great price. We wanted to create a meaningful, hand-crafted collection of furniture with multiple fabric options to speak directly to the DwellStudio customer. We knew that Precedent was the perfect partner to help us achieve that goal."

Target retail channels include specialty retailers, furniture stores and interior designers. The collection will also be sold through DwellStudio's store-in-store at ABC Carpet and Home in New York City.

Larry Ruvo, a Nevada entrepreneur who lost his father to Alzheimer’s, formed an alliance with a major medical institution and founded the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. He then persuaded Frank Gehry, who had previously refused to build in Las Vegas, to design a facility that would create a sense of place and purpose. “I wanted to use his celebrity to help find a cure for a disease while generating a sense of excitement,” says Ruvo.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

STIR, the regular Sherwin-Williams magazine has an article about a homeowners in Piedmont, California who painted their house brilliant shades of orange with violet and fuchsia accents. The article asks of choosing paint colors for a house, in a community that doesn't regulate colors:

Where do the rights of private property owners end and those of the neighborhood begin?

Recently we changed the color of our house from a pale yellow with white trim to something reminiscent of our travels to Mexico. As in Piedmont, in our Portland, Oregon neighborhood "you’d be hard-pressed to find hues more vibrant than grays, blues and earth tones."

We chose Marigold for the main color and gray for the trim. The trim looks great with the roof. Mike said the color initially reminded him of the yellow line on the highway. Amazingly, most of the neighbors love the color. Only our parents wouldn't have chosen such a bold yellow. Mom almost drove up on the curve when she saw our house for the first time.

We felt no obligation to check with our neighbors before painting. I would think they are happy that we keep our house looking good. We love it the color. When we're standing in the brick-red colored kitchen looking outside, we see the Marigold and it does remind us of Mazatlan in Mexico.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery has some major news! We are adding Fabricut to our line of fabrics. Fabricut is one of the largest, most progressive distributors of decorative fabrics in the world offering over 58,000 choices in fabrics and trimmings. A look at the Fabricut website reveals their mission:

Our devotion to supplying exquisite fabrics and trimmings is over 50 years strong and continues with a daily commitment to develop exclusive products for our customers. With an array of traditional, transitional and contemporary styles, patterns and palettes available, Fabricut is the designer’s preference for fabrics and trimmings. Our extensive line of in-stock fabrics, extraordinary customer service and a knowledgeable, worldwide sales force is unmatched.

The Design Center at Fabricut as many of you know allows you o create and maintain virtual design boards for your clients. You can add fabrics and trimmings to your design boards as you browse Fabricut's inventory. In addition, you can also include a personalized comment with each item to help your clients capture your vision.

Landfair Furniture will be adding additional lighting in our showroom to ensure that you can see the true colors of this fabulous line. We will be dropping the Duralee Fabric line, but will continue supporting high quality and extremely customizable Duralee Furniture.

Rug and decorative accessories supplier Surya celebrates a tenfold increase in business since 2004, with double-digit growth each year. For 2010, company sales dollars are up 52 percent.

“Our customers have made us the company we are today," said Satya Tiwari, Surya president. “The best ideas and practices we have implemented have come directly from listening to our customers and trying to solve their needs.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery can help you with rug designs from Surya.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

We listened to a King World News interview of Rick Santelli this weekend and thought the information was extremely informative. Santelli, btw, is credited with starting the Tea Party movement with his rant on CNBC about big government and spending money we don't have. You can hear that interview here.

Every time you read that the government is doing "Quantitative Easing" substitute the words printing dollars and understand that when there are more dollars, the dollars we have in our pockets or bank accounts are worth less. Every time you see the price of gold go up think that's one more vote for a loss of faith in the U.S. dollar.

It wouldn't surprise us to see prices of everything we consume move up and up and everything we own with debt go down in price.

Manufacturers of furniture and accessories have outsourced production to Asian markets to keep prices reasonable, however with raw materials soaring, we wouldn't be surprised to see finished goods no matter where produced go up in price.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Duralee has a new video on their website that shows their customizing capabilities in Duralee Furniture and Owner's Select. The video also includes a look at new introductions at High Point using fashion forward colors, the new Benjamin Moore lacquer application and information about the making of their quality furniture.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Right after you buy a new car, you start noticing how many other people drive a car just like the one you bought. That awareness is a way you avoid buyer's remorse. You think to yourself it must be a good car. Look at how many people made the same decision. How do you avoid buyer's remorse when you buy furniture? Mary Madden who owns Madden-McFarland in Kansas City has some ideas in "Head off furniture buyer's remorse."

Establish your budget and priorities. The sofa or chair may be your most important piece of furniture in a room (and the most costly) so buy quality, the best you can afford. We certainly agree. We sell a lot of high quality sofas and chairs, upholstered and leather. Madden writes:

Good-quality furniture will be more comfortable, look better, feel better and last longer. In the case of your sofa, buy one with solid hardwood frames. The cushions, whether you desire the softness of down or the firmness of a solid foam core, should be well-constructed.

One way you stretch your budget is by buying better quality for rooms that get the most use.

Decide between reupholstering and purchasing.

Before reupholstering, consider the item’s condition and value. If it is in excellent condition other than a worn, stained or dated fabric cover, reupholstering may be a good option, especially if you’ve spotted a fabric that would be perfect with your decor.

At Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery you can come in and compare prices of new versus reuphostering.

Shop carefully.

The three most important things to remember: scale, scale and scale! Consider the height, width and depth as they relate to both the size of the room and the size of the people using the piece.

Remember, to sit on various pieces of furniture. There are many cushion types and it must be comfortable. Also be sure that the seat depth and the distance off the floor is right for you.

Consider how you live. Is the furniture to be used in a formal or comfortable setting? You certainly wouldn't want to use a formal chair for reading a good book.

Don’t settle."Not satisfied with the finish or size you see in a furniture showroom? Just say so." Almost everything is customizable. The piece you order can be made so you will never see another like it.

Consider An Interior Designer. An interor designer can help you with buyer's remorse by saving you time and money.